Daily Dothttp://www.dailydot.com/Daily Dot Articleen-usTue, 21 Aug 2012 13:18:27 +0000Twitter comes to the rescue after thieves steal car with baby insidehttp://www.dailydot.com/news/twitter-alert-missing-baby-uae/<p><img src='//cdn0.dailydot.com/cache/33/20/3320d642d9f8bea7d4f18527cc2a6216.jpg'></p><p>
A police alert sent out on Twitter helped recover a stolen car&mdash;and a baby sitting inside.</p>
<p>
The month-old girl was left in a Toyota Prado in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates, Saturday night while her parents (who were not identified by name in <a href="http://www.thenational.ae/news/uae-news/uae-family-reunited-by-twitter-after-car-thieves-steal-baby-by-mistake"><em>The National&rsquo;s</em> report</a>) ran into a store to grab something quickly. They left the engine running and opportunistic thieves drove off, with Lailas still inside.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>
Police sent out patrols as soon as officers received the call at 9:52 pm local time, and they issued an alert on Twitter in both Arabic and <a href="https://twitter.com/ShjPolice/status/236942776447688704">English</a>. The messages were retweeted by more than 1,700 people, including Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed, the Foreign Minister.</p>
<p>
A few hours later a Sharjah resident tweeted police to say he&rsquo;d seen the car. It was <a href="https://twitter.com/ShjPolice/status/237003268428013568">found at 5 am</a>, a few kilometers from the location where it was taken, with the young girl still inside and unharmed.</p>
<p>
&quot;We received a lot of calls, of people thinking they saw the car, people who wanted to help, we had a lot of help,&quot; said Maj Mohamed Al Shihi of Sharjah police. &quot;So many people cared this time, more than before, because yes it is just a car, but a baby was in it.&quot;</p>
<p>
He added that the parents &quot;should have taken more care and not left the baby alone in the car&quot; and said it was the biggest response the force has had to an online alert.</p>
<p>
<em>Photo by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mrbeck/2721271636/sizes/m/in/photostream/">MRBECK</a>/Flickr</em></p>
kris@dailydot.com (Kris Holt)Tue, 21 Aug 2012 13:18:27 +0000http://www.dailydot.com/news/twitter-alert-missing-baby-uae/NewsTwitter